The invention relates to analytical methodology for identifying individuals in a population possessing certain characteristics indicative of strong leadership and influence over others.
The drawbacks of prior art are best examined both in terms of 1) the changing role and influence of the media over the past many years; and 2) the lack of properly focused marketing. Companies offering products or services have attempted to use multiple channels of communication to reach consumers. These channels, for decades, have expanded with technology. Radios, television and, more recently, the Internet are a small list of examples.
While the expansion of technology is, in many ways, a marketing asset to companies, disadvantages also arise. For example, the increase of available television channels and programs now means that the most highly viewed program today now captures approximately 21% of the population (per the Neilson ratings—the standard statistical vehicle used to measure American viewing), instead of almost 68%, as was the case fifty years ago. Accordingly, advertisers who continue to pay enormous sums of money for air time during commercial intervals for the top-rated programs no longer have what was once tantamount to a monopoly of television viewers.
Expanding further on television as an example, studies have shown that a dramatically increasing number of Americans are changing the television channels or muting the television set's volume during commercials, and are thus starting to disregard advertisements. Although television advertising serves as a common example of the marketing problems companies have been facing, this scenario may apply to virtually any form of media (i.e., radio, newspapers, magazines, etc.), where the reading/listening/viewing options increase for consumers and the monopolies decrease, while the attention consumers pay to advertisements decreases.
While regard for official advertisements decreases in America, the emphasis on conversation increases. According to various studies, Americans are now beginning to converse more about making day-to-day decisions, including the purchase of products and services. Thus, the “official,” broadcasted instructions merely to “Buy Brand X” are no longer sufficient without a more conversation-oriented approach to marketing, and advertisements are now focused on explaining exactly why the consumer should buy Brand X. In this respect, a company may invite the consumer to visit its website for more information about Brand X.
Significantly, word-of-mouth recommendations from consumer to consumer have increased, and have become the most effective form of influence in multiple categories of decision-making. Americans of varying ages are becoming active recommenders through sharing their experience and expertise with others. For example, a study shows that six out of ten Americans report recommending a restaurant to someone else in the past year, and about half have recommended a movie.
Companies have engaged in more targeted marketing, with the goal of reaching individuals whom they hope will purchase the product/service themselves, find the product/service useful and, in turn, inform other potential consumers about the product/service. A common manner in which companies engage in such marketing consists of purchasing data in the form of mass lists of individual names and data or information about them, which is statistically analyzed to determine the likelihood that such individuals would be willing to try the company's product or service. These lists may have been compiled based on extensive surveys, or perhaps based on consumer behavior (i.e., usage of related products). For example, a company producing a new video game might seek to acquire lists of individuals who have purchased video games within the past year. The company, of course, would not end their target marketing at that stage, but would perform statistical analyses using any other available information concerning the video game purchasers to determine other recipients of their advertising. Such an analysis might indicate that male teenagers who owned computers are statistically the most likely people who would buy the video game. The company would target its marketing efforts at individuals meeting those criteria, through whatever channels of communication it chooses to use (perhaps via the Internet, given the target population of computer owners). Thus, targeted research and the word-of-mouth theory combined with statistical analysis promote the dual goals of first, the targets purchasing their product/service, and second, the targets informing other potential consumers about the product/service.
While perhaps targeting the most statistically likely consumers for their particular product or service, prior art has not adequately employed the word-of-mouth theory into practice, because prior art has not targeted the individuals most likely, on a statistical level, to influence others to purchase the products or services. Instead, lists with significant amounts of individuals are purchased, costing the companies significant amounts of money, under the accepted theory that a high amount of targets will yield a high level of product awareness and usage, which in turn, will yield a high level of recommendations to other consumers. Referring again to the studies that Americans are beginning to place more emphasis on conversation in their daily decision-making, a new theory emerges: if a company wishes to succeed on word-of-mouth advertising, its most feasible avenue of success is to target a much narrower pool of individuals who are not only the most likely individuals to purchase the product, but are the most likely to share their approval of the product with others, and to be listened to by others.
In short, the prior art has consisted of market research tools that employ standard statistical methods to target the most likely consumers of particular products or services, but have not applied statistics to target those individuals who are most influential to other consumers, and are most likely to accomplish the word-of-mouth “advertising” goals of the companies through spreading their influence. The result has often been the expensive purchase of mass data lists and the failed word-of-mouth goals.